BEAUTY, MEDIA
Gabrielle Vaughn | VenusBlogs Editor at Large

From CoCreate:
FORENSIC ARTIST PROVES WOMEN LITERALLY DON’T KNOW THEIR OWN BEAUTY
BY: JOE BERKOWITZ

Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder. Studies have shown, though, that when the beauty in question is a woman’s own, and the beholder’s eye is theirs as well, only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. Dove has long been working toward shifting that paradigm with the alternately lauded and derided “Real Beauty” campaign. The brand’s latest effort at changing self-perception attempts to do so through eyewitness testimony.

Recently, Dove hired former police forensic artist Gil Zamora to illustrate some psychologically revealing sketches. In a campaign created by Ogilvy Toronto, a series of women described themselves to Zamora in minute detail, from behind a curtain. The artist in turn created composites as though trying to identify a criminal. Next, each participant was asked to describe another woman present. The results are dramatic and sort of moving.

It’s kind of sad to think that the majority of us underestimate the positive impact our appearance has on others. It would seem that we so rarely perceive ourselves as anything more than the sum of our flaws. The video above is an eye-opening experience, almost instantly identifiable. What’s even more jolting is the realization at the end that not only are we better looking than we thought, but that we are also unconscious of the way we so liberally put ourselves down.